When Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was first published in 1865, no one thought it would have exploded as it did in Japanese entertainment. This fantasy and literary nonsense genre book that hailed from the Englishman Charles Lutwidge Dodgson found popularity with people from around the world for its contents.
Including the 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass, anime has adapted the series into various things from children's anime, romantic situations where the protagonist "Alice" is aged-up, to light novels with much darker themes. If fans of the wonderful world ever want an anime to watch with its themes, here are ten of the most relatable.
10 CLAMP In Wonderland (1994 - 2007)
CLAMP loves to include their characters from their various series, such as Cardcaptor Sakura and xxxHOLiC, and put them together as easter eggs. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is the most used series for crossovers, but CLAMP in Wonderland is the second contender.
This short music video pays homage to their CLAMP characters by putting them all in the same video. The first one features the characters from their series between 1989 and 1994. It was so popular, it spawned a sequel called CLAPM in Wonderland 2 that uses their characters from 1995 and 2006.
9 Alice & Zouroku (2017)
Alice & Zoruku is not what it appears on the surface. Including being a fantasy anime, it is also a magical girl one. The series focuses on humans with supernatural powers, and the girl it follows, in particular, is a child named Sana Kashimura.
She has the ability to teleport and create anything from her imagination, and because of this was studied as a subject at a research facility until she escapes with an old man named Zouroku Kashimura. The series focuses on Sana, "The Red Queen" and how they evade the recapture of Sana, as well as her daily life with Zouroku as his adopted granddaughter.
8 Pandora Hearts (2009)
Pandora Hearts follows a boy named Oz Vessalius who is thrown into the Abyss for the sin of being alive. However, after making a contract with a Chain, the name for monsters in the Abyss, named Alice, he escapes with her and finds ten years have passed for what seemed like a few minutes to him.
Together with his best friend and butler, Gilbert, and the Chain named Alice, Oz tries to figure out the mysteries surrounding him.
7 Alice Academy (2004 - 2005)
Since the Alice Academy anime does not do the original justice, it would be best to read the manga. Unfortunately, the entire manga is not translated into English. After Mikan Sakura discovers her best friend Hotaru Imai is transferring schools, she follows her to Alice Academy.
At this school, all the children and adults have powers named "Alices" raging from the ability to control fire to mind control—and Mikan has one of the rarest ones, so she enrolls as well.
6 Alice In Borderland (2014 - 2015)
Alice in Borderland takes a darker approach to the children's book, for it is a survival, suspense, and fantasy series. Although it received an OVA in 2014, it is set to receive a live-action series by Netflix that is scheduled to debut in 2020.
Arisu Ryouhei, Karube Dakichi, and Segawa Chouta are high school delinquents that are bored with life. After Arisu wishes that the world will become more exciting, he and his three friends are transported to a post-apocalyptic world where they must play a survival game to survive.
5 Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo (2006)
Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo is heavily influenced by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and even features the author, Lewis Carroll in the series reimagined as a man named L. Takion.
Despite there only being two books in the series, this anime does a what-if scenario on if there was a third book named The Eternal Alice. After Aruto Kirihara discovers the female lead of the book, Arisu Arisugawa has been put in the real world to fight "Alice Users" that have been let loose.
4 Alice SOS (1998 -1999)
Alice SOS goes deeper into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by having the main character dress more like a cuter version of Alice. The series is an oldie with 14 episodes by J.C. Staff.
However, after learning that Alice has been kidnapped and continues to be transported to different worlds, it's up to him to save the protagonist, Alice.
3 Miyuki-chan In Wonderland (1995)
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland is a short and risque CLAMP series that the group created a few years before Cardcaptor Sakura. Full of fantastical sex jokes and a lot of yuri, the series focuses on the main character, Miyuki, being transferred to different worlds.
After spotting a playboy bunny and falling down a rabbit hole from the shock, she has an odd dream full of oddities. The manga delves into this even more with Miyuki going to other mysterious countries.
2 Alice in the Country of Hearts: Wonderful Wonder World (2011)
Alice in the Country of Hearts: Wonderful Wonder World is based on an otome visual novel by Quin Rose. Despite there being multiple iterations of this on PC and PlayStation systems, there was only one movie adaption. The series focuses on a realist version of Alice Liddell who is in her beautiful sister's shadow.
After she is kidnapped by a white rabbit named Peter White, who also happens to be madly in love with her, and forced to drink a mysterious liquid, she is forced to participate in a game. The only way to escape the Wonderland is by spending time with the characters, such as odd iterations of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, and filling the vial.
1 Alice In Wonderland (1983 - 1984)
Alice in Wonderland is the Japanese adaption of the classic children's book. Called Fushigi no Kuni no Alice in Japanese, this 52 episode anime chronicles the classic plot of young Alice following a white rabbit into a hole and her entrance to Wonderland.
While the first episodes follow the first book, the second book follows the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. The only difference is that Alice is not stuck, but returns to the real world at the end of every episode.